Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Applying Evolutionary Theory to Understand Host-Microbiome Evolution: New Tricks for Old Dogs
Published: 2024-11-26
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Microbiology
All plants and animals are host to a community of microorganisms, their microbiomes, that have crucial influences on the life history and performance of their hosts. Despite the importance of such host-microbiome relationships, relatively little is known about the role microbiomes play in mediating evolution of the host as well as entire host-microbe assemblages. This knowledge gap is partly due [...]
Fine-tuning mast seeding: as resources accumulate, plants become more sensitive to weather cues
Published: 2024-11-26
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Forest Sciences, Life Sciences
Interannual variability of seed production, known as masting, has far-reaching ecological impacts including effects on forest regeneration and the population dynamics of seed consumers. It is important to understand the mechanisms driving masting to predict how plant populations and ecosystem dynamics may change into the future, and for short-term forecasting of seed production to aid management. [...]
Traditional water structures in villages support amphibian populations within a protected landscape
Published: 2024-11-25
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Population Biology
Amphibians are among the most globally threatened vertebrates, with habitat loss and degradation being the primary drivers of their decline. While natural wetlands are essential for amphibian survival, artificial habitats can also play a significant role as refuges, especially in human-altered landscapes. This study examines the role of artificial waterbodies in supporting amphibian populations [...]
Life, Death and Energy: Nature Selects No Free Lunch
Published: 2024-11-25
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Brown et al. (2024) highlight that organisms invest a constant amount of energy into the production of viable offspring per unit of body mass per generation. This explains how diversity in life can exist. We interpret their result in relation to balancing offspring costs in real vs. physiological time.
New technology for an ancient fish: A lamprey life cycle modeling tool with an R Shiny application
Published: 2024-11-25
Subjects: Applied Mathematics, Applied Statistics, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Population Biology, Systems Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Lampreys (Petromyzontiformes) are an ancient group of fishes with complex life histories. We created a life cycle model that includes an R Shiny interactive web application interface to simulate abundance by life stage. This will allow scientists and managers to connect available demographic information in a framework that can be applied to questions regarding lamprey biology and conservation. We [...]
Causes of recent changes in bill length in Crozet wandering albatross, a long-lived seabird
Published: 2024-11-21
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Population Biology
Phenotypes are changing in many wild populations, largely in response to environmental changes due to human activities. Phenotypic change can be driven by several mechanisms, with contrasted consequences for the persistence of populations. Identifying those mechanisms is key to understand current responses to human pressures and to predict the future fate of populations. Here we attempt to [...]
Experimentally-induced low flows reveal climate change may shrink trophic niches of mountain stream predators.
Published: 2024-11-21
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Climate change is projected to decrease snowpack and advance snowmelt in mountain ranges globally–including in California’s Sierra Nevada, where streamflow in snow-dominated rivers is expected to peak up to 2 months earlier, and remain in baseflow conditions for extended periods of time. Predators may be particularly sensitive to low flows, owing to their larger body sizes, higher metabolic [...]
Effect of bulb type on moth trap catch and composition in UK gardens
Published: 2024-11-15
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Research Methods in Life Sciences
Abstract 1. A wide variety of light sources are employed to trap moths, differing in brightness and spectrum. Relatively little is known about how these factors affect the resulting sample. 2. We analyse 7 moth trap bulb types using 10 years of records from the Garden Moth Scheme to provide the largest and most comprehensive comparison of moth trap bulb types to date. 3. 125W Mercury Vapour (MV) [...]
Do behavioural ecologists misuse the term multivariate?
Published: 2024-11-14
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Clear communication of procedures and findings is critical for scientific progress. One problem facing many research disciplines is the incorrect labelling in the literature of multivariable (i.e. many Xs) statistical models as multivariate (many Ys). Multivariate and multivariable statistical models are different statistical approaches and should be described as such. I assessed whether [...]
Gut microbiome composition and function – including transposase gene abundance - varies with age, but not senescence, in a wild vertebrate
Published: 2024-11-14
Subjects: Bioinformatics, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Microbiology, Ornithology
Studies on wild animals, mostly undertaken using 16S metabarcoding, have yielded ambigous evidence regarding changes in the gut microbiome (GM) with age and senescence. Furthermore, variation in GM function has rarely been studied in such wild populations, despite GM metabolic characteristics potentially being associated with host senescent declines. Here, we used seven years of longitudinal [...]
Advancing the spatiotemporal dimension of wildlife–pollution interactions
Published: 2024-11-14
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Behavior and Ethology, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Health Life Sciences, Life Sciences, Other Animal Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Other Pharmacology, Toxicology and Environmental Health, Pharmacology, Toxicology and Environmental Health, Toxicology, Zoology
Chemical pollution is a pervasive problem and is now considered the fastest-growing agent of global environmental change. Numerous pollutants are known to disrupt animal behaviour, alter ecological interactions, and shift evolutionary trajectories. Crucially, both chemical pollutants and individual organisms are non-randomly distributed throughout the environment. Despite this, the current [...]
Choosing friends in an uncertain world: information reduces relationship stability in a Bayesian learning model of cooperative partnership
Published: 2024-11-14
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
Social animals often form differentiated social relationships with conspecifics. Developing closer partnerships with some than others can facilitate cooperative interactions in which individuals share resources or risk. When choosing a partner, individuals face a decision: a known partner might be sub-optimal if better options are available, but switching partners can be risky if others' [...]
Pollinator ethanology: A comment on Bowland et al.
Published: 2024-11-13
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Behavior and Ethology, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, Evolution, Integrative Biology, Life Sciences, Nutrition, Pharmacology, Toxicology and Environmental Health, Toxicology, Zoology
An integrated approach to above- and below-ground ecological monitoring for nature-based solutions
Published: 2024-11-12
Subjects: Agricultural Science, Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences
1. As the development of nature-based solutions (NbS) increases globally, it is important to ensure that projects meet the objective of benefiting biodiversity, alongside tackling societal challenges. However, most NbS projects do not directly monitor ecological outcomes, and those that do often focus on a limited set of metrics. It is therefore challenging to assess whether projects fulfil the [...]
Frequency-dependence favors social plasticity and facilitates socio-eco-evolutionary feedback in fluctuating environments
Published: 2024-11-12
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Integrative Biology
1. Increasing attention is being devoted to the study of phenotypic plasticity in social environments. However, much remains unknown about the selection pressures driving the evolution of social plasticity, as well as the pathways by which social plasticity may facilitate or constrain feedback between ecological and evolutionary dynamics. Here we explore these questions using quantitative genetic [...]